US new car sales: Japanese, Europeans soar as GM, Ford slide | CarAdvice

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US new car sales: Japanese, Europeans soar as GM, Ford slide

By Tim Beissmann
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Strong July sales by Japanese and European automakers have offset another slow month of new-vehicle registrations from Ford and General Motors in the US.

Honda (116,944 units, up 45 per cent), Volkswagen (48,893, +28 per cent) and Toyota (164,898, +26 per cent) led the way in the market, and were well supported by Nissan (98,341, +16 per cent), Subaru (25,183, +16 per cent) and Jaguar Land Rover (4331, +14 per cent).

The leading Detroit-based manufacturers took another hit, however, with General Motors down six per cent to 201,237 units and Ford slipping four per cent to 173,482.

The mixed results saw the total US market rise nine per cent in July for a total of 1.15 million vehicle sales. The result was off the pace of the first half of the year, in which the market rose 15 per cent compared with the same period in 2011.

Despite the dip, the market still remains on track to eclipse 14 million sales for 2012, with 8.43 million vehicles sold in the first seven months of the year.

Both Ford and GM blamed July’s losses on a quiet fleet market, with deliveries to those buyers down 16 per cent and 15 per cent respectively.

The third member of the Detroit Three, Chrysler Group, bucked the trend, enjoying its 28th consecutive month of growth in July. Sales increased 13 per cent to 126,089 on the back of double-digit percentage gains from Chrysler brand, Fiat and Ram.

The Ford F-Series pick-up remains the top-selling vehicle in the country. It recorded its 12th straight month of growth in July as sales increased to 49,314 – with 42 per cent of F-150s sold equipped with an EcoBoost engine.


 

  • Sumpguard

    It seems the Americans are finally realising they can’t keep using a quarter of the world’s oil output year in year out!

       EcoBoost may yet prove to be the savior for their heavy, thristy pickups .I said a couple of years ago that small capacity forced engines will be the future of the industry. If they are good enough for large 2 tonne plus pickups then they are a no brainer in smaller vehicles also.

       Is it really due to a loss of fleet sales or are fleet buyers wising up too? Afterall the efficient Jap brands are thriving.

  • Sumpguard

    It seems the Americans are finally realising they can’t keep using a quarter of the world’s oil output year in year out!

       EcoBoost may yet prove to be the savior for their heavy, thristy pickups .I said a couple of years ago that small capacity forced engines will be the future of the industry. If they are good enough for large 2 tonne plus pickups then they are a no brainer in smaller vehicles also.

       Is it really due to a loss of fleet sales or are fleet buyers wising up too? Afterall the efficient Jap brands are thriving.

  • Sumpguard

    It seems the Americans are finally realising they can’t keep using a quarter of the world’s oil output year in year out!

       EcoBoost may yet prove to be the savior for their heavy, thristy pickups .I said a couple of years ago that small capacity forced engines will be the future of the industry. If they are good enough for large 2 tonne plus pickups then they are a no brainer in smaller vehicles also.

       Is it really due to a loss of fleet sales or are fleet buyers wising up too? Afterall the efficient Jap brands are thriving.

  • Pauly

    I wish Honda Australia would import some of the Honda’s they have on offer in the USA. A 45% increase in sales is something Honda Australia can only dream of!

    Bring in:

    - Civic Coupe- Civic Coupe Si- Accord Coupe
    - Element (A compact 4WD to compete with Dualis, as CRV competes with XTrail)- Ridgeline (A Ute to compete with Hilux, Amarok, Ranger etc etc)

    That would flesh out the quite stale line up we have in Australia. And if they bring in the Civic Coupe Si its another sports model that Honda Australia desperately need.

    • pixxxels

      I’m for it, as long as they leave out the Crosstour. Jesus Christ that car…

    • Darryl

      Can’t see the Ridgeline being very successful – transverse engine, no separate chassis, irs and no diesel. They may have sold 117,000 vehicles, but less than 1000 of them were Ridgelines. Would also help if the new CRV was here the same time it was introduced over there. And one other thing – why do we have to wait so long for sales (registration) figures here, given the States is quite a few hours behind us.

    • iheartnj

      The Element ended production last year.

  • Guest01

    Well it’s no coincidence that I saw sh*t loads of Camries, CRV’s, & Civic when I was in U.S few months ago

    • chook

      So in other words the younger generation of americans are the nerdier geeky types !!!…….obviously so …….same as here , the younger ones have no appreciation of their own countries heritage or history and wouldnt know the meaning of patriotic . The economic mess theyre in was created by themselves and we will be following in their footsteps !!

      • Simon

        So chook, what should we be driving then to support the Australian economy?  Holden Cruze?

      • Legnab

        CHOOK where are your cloths made , your shoes , your watch , your phone , get over it , if FORD and GM had started building smaller cars 10 years ago they would not be in this mess of marketing dinosaurs .

  • Mark

    some of the deals the euro’s have in the usa are crazy, VW had 5 years interest free! 5 years!!!! 

  • Kelvinhorner

    I test drove an EcoBoost Falcon yesterday………i couldnt believe how damn good it was. I didnt want to take it back to the dealer……..if people went and drove one they would buy one…..simple. These EcoBoost engines are just fantastic……..

  • Guest

    LOL! Reading between the lines in this article, there’s another parallel universe in the US vs. Australia where the market share order is completely reversed :-
    USA
    1. GM – 201,237 units
    2. Ford – 173,483 units
    3. Toyota – 164,898 units
    4. Chrysler – 126,089 units
    5. Honda – 116,944 units
    No stats on Hyundai/KIA but should be among the top 10 US autos.

  • Guest

    Here are the full July 2012 USA stats:-
    1. GM 201,237 2. Ford 173,483 3. Toyota 164,898 4. Chrysler 126,089 5. Honda 116,944 6. Nissan 98,341 7. Hyundai 62,621 8. KIA 48,074 9. VW 37,014 10. Subaru 25,183

    USA Top 10 selling models in July 2012:-
    1. Ford F-Series 2. Toyota Camry 3. Chevy Silverado 4. Honda Accord 5. Nissan Altima 6. Honda Civic 7. Dodge Ram 8. Toyota Corolla/Matrix 9. Ford Fusion 10. Ford Escape

    • Doctor

      The top 4 is pretty much the same as its been for the last 10 years or so.
      That is why the Camry and Mark Latham Special (American Accord) are styled for American tastes (or is that an oxymoron?). Thank God that we get the Accord Euro….

  • Maz

    If Ford USA want to increase their sale they should convince Ford Australia to mport the damn Mustang! I’m currently in the US and just had a GT 5.0 Mustang for a day. WOW What a freaking car!! That 5.0 is fantastic, and the car ONLY costs $35K USD!!!

    Instead we get nothing, no decent “sports” / muscle 2 door cars in Australia. Just the damn FPV 4 door taxi!

    I’d be at the dealership tomorrow if we could have the Mustang in Australia!
    Australia’s motoring choice sucks!

    • Phil

      They’ve tried Mustang here before in 2001 and it only lasted a year as it was a complete flop.

      Besides you can’t be all that keen on buying one or you’d have found out that there are numerous companys within Australia that import brand new Mustangs and sell them here complete with compliance and RHD conversion.

      BTW, I love how you use the quotation marks for “sports” when referring to the Mustang as a sports car!

      • MisterZed

        That’s because they only offered it with a manual.  Most people spending over 50-60k on a car want an automatic.

        • DAVIDZ

          shows how little u know……

      • Maz

        Err. The mustang is more of a sport car than a commodore ss or xr6 or wouldn’t you say?
        Read my post again, what Aussie sports cars OR muscle cars with 2 doors are there? That’s right, none!
        As for companies importing them and doing a conversion, yeah sure, go ahead and pay $100k+!!

        The 2001 mustang was hideous, the current model is fantastic and a pretty good homage to the 60′s classic.

    • MisterZed

      Yikes – 35k is a fortune over in the US.  Back in the mid-90s a Mustang only cost $14,990 (for the V6, though).

      • DAVIDZ

        not when daddy is picking up the tab….